Who's on first?

So, I'm still reading Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, by Joanna Weaver. Last night I was reading chapter 5: "Living Room Intimacy" (as opposed to "Kitchen Service" which is the title of chapter 6 and the other side of this Mary/Martha exploration). Towards the middle of the chapter she references a Robert Boyd Munger's article "My Heart Christ's Home" (this is the one where Munger talks about how Jesus came into his heart and set up house, redecorating and cleaning out, etc.). Toward the end of her reference, she specifically cites a portion of the article concerning the Drawing Room of Munger's heart and how he would meet Jesus in there every morning for some intimate time together. But then the business of life would start crowding in until he would miss a day here, two days there, etc. Then one morning he passes by the doorway on his way out and sees Jesus sitting there waiting for him. This is the conversation that follows:

"Blessed Master, forgive me. Have You been here all these mornings?" "Yes," He said, "I told you I would be here every morning to meet with you." Then I was even more ashamed. He had been faithful in spite of my faithlessness. I asked His forgiveness and He readily forgave me... He said, "The trouble with you is this: You have been thinking of the quiet time, of the Bible study and prayer time, as a factor in your own spiritual progress, but you have forgotten that this hour means something to Me also."

What a humbling reminder this passage has been to me since reading it last night. It is so simple, yet it calls into question my entire perspective and approach to how I live for and walk with Christ. Then this morning, during my own Drawing Room time with the Lord, I was reading in My Utmost for His Highest for today, and Oswald Chambers said this about Paul (referencing Acts 26:16):

Paul was not given a message or a doctrine, he was brought into a vivid, personal, overmastering relationship to Jesus Christ...Paul was devoted to a Person, not to a cause. He was absolutely Jesus Christ's, he saw nothing else, he lived for nothing else. "For I am determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."

The verse that Chambers references in Acts 26:16 is part of Paul's speech to the governor Festus when he appeals to Caesar after being arrested. In that verse he says that when Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus, He told Paul that he had appointed him as a servant and as a witness of what he had seen of Christ and of what Christ would show him. As I meditated on all this together, it made me realize...Paul couldn't be a witness of something or someone that he didn't know. I know that seems just so obvious, but really it's much easier said than done. Just as with the conflict between being a "Mary" (sitting at Jesus feet = Living Room Intimacy) or a "Martha" (Christian activity = Kitchen Service), it's so much easier to go about a list of activities than to just sit and listen and let the activities flow from the rest. Being in a profession that is characterized by the activities and services of teaching, mentoring, serving, etc., it is SO EASY to lose grip on the personal relation part of it. There is just so much to DO, and often that busy-ness just takes over. But the Lord is calling to me from that Drawing Room door saying, "Hey! Come sit with me, talk with me, study with me. When it's time to go out and "do", I'll go with you." I find myself pleading for that....to re-learn how to sit as His feet as Mary did in that intimacy and that when it's time to serve like Martha, that we would go out together so that the intimacy and conversation will continue even through the service. Lots of food for thought!